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The scars on the lungs of some coronavirus survivors are worse than those who smoke, a trauma surgeon in Texas recently said of just one of the possible long-term effects the new disease may have on its victims.
“I don’t know who needs to hear this, but ‘post-Covid’ lungs seem worse than ANY type of terrible smoker’s lung we’ve ever seen,” Dr Brittany Bankhead-Kendall wrote in a recent Twitter post.
“And they fall apart. And they coagulate. And the breathlessness persists… and again… and again, ”she added.
Speaking to CBS Dallas, Bankhead-Kendall said most of the coronavirus patients she has treated “have severe chest x-rays every time,” noting that even those who have contracted the virus but have not had symptoms – they were asymptomatic – have a chest x-ray approximately 70% to 80% of the time.
CORONAVIRUS HOSPITALIZED PATIENTS STILL HAVE SYMPTOMS 6 MONTHS POST-INFECTION: STUDY
In a clean x-ray, Bankhead-Kendall explained, a patient’s lungs will appear black. In a smoker, the x-ray usually reveals white lines, which she says indicates scarring and congestion. With a COVID-19 survivor, an x-ray usually shows the lungs filled with white, indicating severe scarring and congestion.
“Either you’ll see a lot of these dense white scars or you’ll see them all over your lung. And if you’re not feeling any issues now, the fact that it’s on your chest x-ray indicates that you may have issues. late, ”she told the news channel.
“All the survivors and the people who have tested positive … it’s going to be a problem,” she added later.
Experts are still studying the lasting effects the new virus might have on those who survived it. Already, researchers have identified what has been called the “long COVID”, when patients still experience certain symptoms of the virus months after recovering from it, such as severe fatigue, headaches, dyspnea and severe pain. anosmia, among others.
A study in October, for example, suggested that older patients, those with a higher BMI, and those who are female may be at greater risk of suffering from prolonged COVID.
More recently, a study released over the weekend deepened the existing evidence.Long-term COVID is a reality for many who have contracted the novel coronavirus, with researchers finding in what is considered the greatest cohort study on the subject to date that for some, certain symptoms of COVID-19 – namely fatigue and muscle weakness – persist for up to six months after the initial infection.
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Researchers found that about 76% of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 reported at least one symptom of the new virus months after discharge from hospital, with fatigue or muscle weakness and sleep disturbances being the most common. more common.
“These results confirm that people with serious illness need care after discharge,” the researchers concluded. “Longer follow-up studies in a larger population are needed to understand the full spectrum of health consequences of COVID-19.”
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